Short Summary

In Italy, almost five and a half months have elapsed since the discovery of the body of former Premier Aldo Moro, who had been kidnapped and murdered by the group of guerillas knows as the Red Brigade.

Description

In Italy, almost five and a half months have elapsed since the discovery of the body of former Premier Aldo Moro, who had been kidnapped and murdered by the group of guerillas knows as the Red Brigade. The assassination highlighted Italy's increasing problem of terrorism and three have been frequent calls for a parliamentary debate on the death of Mr. Moro and the whole issue of violence. On tuesday (24 October) the Chamber of deputies met in Rome to begin a four-day session on terrorism.

SYNOPSIS: Apart from the formal debate, the Italian Prime Minister Guilio Andreotti has been holding private talks with political leaders to discuss ways of dealing with the growth of violence. Even while Deputies were preparing for the opening session, a policeman was wounded by terrorists in the suburbs of Rome. The Red Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Interior Minister Mr. Virgionio Rognoni opened the debate and gave statistics to support his theory that terrorism was far from eradicated. Sixty-seven people have been killed and two hundred and fifty-nine wounded in guerrilla violence over the past four years. Mr. Rognoni described the path to the controlling of such incidents as long and tricky and warned that the Red Brigade group was composed of the country;s most highly-organised guerrillas. He went on the reject calls for a parliamentary enquiry into the murder of Mr. Moro as premature, but added it was important to establish quickly the truth behind his abduction.

Mr. Rognoni said the recent rise in terrorism dated back to 1974 when there were almost five hundred guerrilla attacks. That figure had risen to more than two thousand by last year and was up a further twenty percent in the first nine months or 1978.